


Misunderstanding

by teagarden15



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27454885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teagarden15/pseuds/teagarden15
Summary: The newspaper at Masumi’s college prints an article naming him the first year’s most eligible bachelor. Unsurprisingly, he does not react well.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 55





	Misunderstanding

**Author's Note:**

> Since I haven’t started reading the third year of Mankai yet, I don’t know if Masumi chose to go to the same college as Tsuzuru, but for the purposes of this fic, he did :)

Izumi was looking through new curry recipes online when her phone rang. “Hello?” 

“Hey Izumi,” Tsuzuru said, his voice strained. “Are you busy right now?”

“Not really,” she said with a glance at her computer screen. Curry was important, but she could look up recipes later. “Did you need something?”

“I was hoping you could come to campus. Something happened and Masumi isn’t doing well. Like, really not doing well.”

“What happened?” she asked, jumping to her feet and searching for her purse. She couldn’t imagine something happening at school that would upset Masumi. He didn’t interact with other people unless they were part of the Mankai Theater. She’d witnessed his amazing ability to ignore everyone around him, and he always got good grades, so he couldn’t be upset about doing poorly on an assignment. And even if that somehow did happen, she was sure he wouldn’t be upset enough for Tsuzuru to call her over it. 

“Well, the school paper decided to do a poll to the school of who was the most eligible bachelor and bachelorette in the school for each year. The only qualification for voting for someone was that they couldn’t be in a relationship and Masumi won as the most eligible bachelors of the first years.”

Izumi slowed down her frantic searching. “Masumi is upset that he won as most eligible bachelor?” With his popularity, it wasn’t a surprise that he won. He was handsome, brilliant, and seemed to have some quality she’d yet to figure out that other girls went crazy for. There was also the fact that his family was wealthy, but she hoped no one had voted for him because of that. 

“Yeah, he was pretty pissed to hear he won. As far as he’s concerned, he IS in a committed relationship, so he feels no one should have been able to vote for him, but that’s not the real problem. Girls have been asking him out all day, following him around, and trying to talk to him. He’s worked himself into a pretty bad state over all this.” 

“Where is he right now?”

“Huddled against a wall outside one of the campus buildings. I tried to get him to move, but he told me no one will bother him if no one can find him. I pointed out that I found him, but he argued that I room with him, so I’m more familiar with what he looks like. I couldn’t get him to move no matter what I said. Do you think you could come down here?” 

“Yeah, I’ll come down,” she said, finally finding her purse. “Can you describe what building he’s next to?” She wasn’t sure she’d be able to find it by description alone, but she’d spent a little time on their campus for photography events for Omi, and a few other events for her actors. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

~.~

Luckily, Izumi was able to find the building Tsuzuru described and she realized that he hadn’t been joking about Masumi being huddled against the building. He was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest, his arms wrapped around his legs with his head down, and his iconic headphones covering his ears. She felt this was a bit of an overreaction, but Masumi got upset over strange things sometimes. And she had to admit that she didn’t approve of the school making a spectacle of a student without their permission. A student only should have been eligible for votes if they first put their name in as wanting to be named an eligible bachelor or bachelorette. 

Coming up to him, she tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up, a glare on his face. The glare melted when their eyes met, his gaze flashing with surprise and then relief as he practically lunged at her, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face in her neck. His headphone were knocked off at the quick movement, falling to the grass.

“Hey,” she said, blushing as she cupped the back of his head and wrapped her other arm around his back. He’d left absolutely no space between them. The term ‘they were glued together’ had been created because of moments like this. “Tsuzuru called me to let me know what happened and told me you weren’t doing okay.”

“I’m NOT available,” he growled, tightening his grip on her. “I’m committed for life. I made up my mind a long time ago.”

“I know you did,” she said, stroking his hair. He relaxed a little at the movement. “They had no right to list you as the most eligible bachelor. Why don’t we go talk to the school newspaper and get this straightened out?” 

He held on for a few more moments before pulling back enough to look her in the eyes. “Okay,” he agreed. Reluctantly, he let go of her to put his headphones into his backpack, then grabbed her hand, interlacing his fingers with hers. He held on tightly as he pulled her along, then walked so closely to her that she was sure everyone staring at them was one hundred percent certain they were dating. She flushed red again. At least no one here knew her except for Tsuzuru and Juza, and they would both know that she and Masumi weren’t dating. 

When they entered the office of the school newspaper, there was only one girl there, sitting behind a desk with her eyes on a computer. The girl looked up at them, her eyes flashing with surprise when she saw Masumi, then her gaze went to their interlocked hands and she flashed a bright smile. “Oh! Have you already found a girlfriend? I knew those articles would create some relationships.”

Masumi glared, his grip on Izumi’s hand tightening. 

“Uh, no we’re not a new couple,” Izumi corrected. “Your paper was mistaken about Masumi being available.” She wondered if she could get through this conversation without lying. So far, so good. 

A look of horror came over the girl’s face. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! I guess we were only judging whether someone was available by what we saw around campus. I didn’t think that maybe anyone might be dating someone from outside school.”

“Could you please print a retraction about Masumi being the most eligible bachelor of the first years? Write that he isn’t available and put whoever won second place as the most eligible bachelor? With their permission this time? Masumi’s been really stressed with all the attention he’s gotten today and all the girls who’ve been asking him out.” 

“Yes, of course,” the girl said, scribbling down notes. Then she peeked up at them. “Maybe I could take a picture of you two to print with the retraction? Just to make things clear. It’s obvious from looking at the two of you how close you are. That might help the attention die down faster.”

“No,” Izumi said at the same time Masumi said, “Yes.” 

Masumi pouted, his bangs hanging over his eyes as he gave her a hurt look.

“Masumi—” she began, then stopped herself before saying they weren’t really dating. “No.” He turned his pouting look on the floor and she struggled not to smile. His pouting could be annoying, but sometimes she found it cute. 

“Okaaay,” the girl said. “We won’t include a picture, but we’ll print a retraction. We’ll get that out as soon as possible.”

“Tomorrow,” Masumi said with a glare. “You’ll get it out tomorrow, or you can explain to my professors that I can’t come on campus because of all the harassment from your article. I got too much attention even before this.” 

The girl gulped. “We’ll do our best,” she promised weakly. 

They turned to go and Izumi was surprised to see an older man standing there, watching them with crossed arms and an amused look on his face. “Hello, I’m the advisor of the student newspaper. As Ami said, we’ll work to get a retraction printed as soon as possible, but it’s not like any harm was done with this mistake. What man doesn’t want women fawning all over him, girlfriend or not?”

This time it was Izumi’s turn to glare and tighten her grip on Masumi’s hand. “You may be so disgusting that you’d want women fawning over you while in a relationship, but Masumi has more character than that.” She strode forward, brushing past the man and pulling Masumi along behind her. 

Outside, she turned to say something to him, but the starry look in his eyes made her stop.

“You complimented me,” he said, smiling. 

She shook her head in exasperation. “I said something that was fact, Masumi. Of course you’re not like that.” 

His smiled stayed in place. “I’m so glad you trust me that much.” His smile slipped as he put on a more serious expression. “I’ll try to trust you more too, okay?”

She sighed. “We’re not dating. Though I’ve explained to you that I have no intention of dating right now. I promise I’ll let you know when that changes, okay?”

He frowned. “You have to tell me first, before anyone else, and then I’ll be the first one to ask you out.” 

She wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so instead she said, “How about you come home now? It looks like you feel too harassed to focus at school today, and I’m sure you’ll be able to make up any work you miss before the end of the week.” 

“Okay,” he agreed, leading the way and still holding her hand. “Can I spend the time with you?” 

“Sure. I was just looking up new curry recipes. You can help me decide which ones to make first and pick up the ingredients from the market!” 

He smiled down at her fondly. “That sounds perfect.”

Ridiculously, the thought crossed her mind that if she did date Masumi, he would let her make curry whenever she wanted.


End file.
